Finally Made It To Bartaco

Bartaco has been all over social media in the last year or so with photo after photo of gorgeously plated tacos and mouth-watering margaritas. With three locations around Atlanta in West Midtown, Inman Park and Chastain Park, It’s kind of crazy that I hadn’t been to the restaurant before. Recently, Erica invited a group of ladies out to the Bartaco Chastain Park for an early happy hour, so I was excited to finally get my chance to see what the hype was about.

Bartaco Chastain Park

Bataco makes their juices fresh

There is an unwritten rule that when you have tacos, you must also have margaritas. So that is exactly what we did. The margaritas at Bartaco are strong with just a hint of sweetness and are prepared with fresh juices. I have to admit that this is one of the best margaritas I’ve had in a long time.

To start we all enjoyed the fresh hand-mashed guacamole with lime juice, spicy serrano chiles, onions and cilantro. The guacamole was served with large round fried tortillas that had a light dusting of salt.

I enjoyed the guacamole, but the grilled sweet corn was my favorite. There is delicious mix of flavors from the sweet corn, the tangy lime, the savory cotija cheese and the spicy cayenne pepper. If you don’t want to get too messy, request to have the corn taken off the cobb.

L to R: Shrimp “Banh Mi”, Sesame Ribeye, Baja Fish and Duck

As the tacos came rolling out of the kitchen, I was able to grab several that was on my list to try. I am a sucker for a good fish taco so the baja fish was first up. The simply prepared spicy tempura-battered cod was topped with a spicy chipotle slaw. The fish and slaw combo is something that I’ve seen before, but I really enjoyed it. I can also appreciate that the taco featured cod which is a thicker and heartier piece of fish.

The shrimp “banh mi” topped with a sriracha tofu sauce and pickled veggies was just ok for me. I didn’t taste much of the sriracha sauce and the pickled veggies were just a bit overpowering. Unfortunately, the taco wasn’t as flavorful as I would have liked.

The sesame ribeye prepared with Angus beef and topped with kimchi was among my favorites. The ribeye was tender and the sesame sauce was flavorful and the light topping of kimchi added some acidity without overpowering the taco.

Also one of my favorites, the duck with tamarind glaze was just perfect. Duck is a fatty meat, so because of that, it naturally has tons of flavor and it also makes the meat quite tender. The tamarind glaze added a sweet, earthy flavor that I loved.

A photo posted by LoveMilla (@millahappilyeating) on Jan 16, 2017 at 1:48pm PST

I really enjoyed my experience at Bartaco and I can see why many Atlantan’s flock to the restaurant for some casual eats. The decor is bright, airy and has some character. When the weather permits, I recommend enjoying your tacos and margaritas outside on the patio.